Indiana's controversial religious freedom law should not have been amended, says former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, but he still deems the changes "acceptable."
"It's a good bill, but it doesn't really open the debate up on some of the more current issues," Santorum said Sunday on "Face the Nation."
The current federal law and Indiana law hold a limited view of what religious liberty is in the workplace, he said.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence urged the state legislature to make changes to the state Religious Freedom Restoration Act after a backlash to the law that critics saw as discriminatory against gay people.
The changes clarify that businesses cannot discriminate against anyone based on sexual orientation. The law was intended to keep people with strong religious convictions from being forced to break them or risk fines or closing their business.
People such as photographers and caterers would not be forced to work at a same-sex wedding under the law.
"This is about the government coming in and saying, 'We’re going to make you do this,'" Santorum said.
"I think you’re seeing attitudes in this country change," Santorum said. "When those attitudes change, you run into a whole bunch of new issues."
People on both sides of the debate should be respected, he said.
It is important to differentiate between discrimination against people for who they are and actions such as participating in a same-sex wedding, Santorum said.
He compared a caterer being forced to work at a same-sex wedding to a gay print shop owner being forced to print flyers for Westboro Baptist Church, which protests against homosexuals holding signs saying God hates them.
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